Group 6 - Miscellaneous Offences

Number of Miscellaneous offences recorded in
2015-16:

Miscellaneous offences account for half (50%) of all offences
recorded in Scotland in 2015-16. Between 2014-15 and 2015-16, the
number of Miscellaneous offences recorded by the police in Scotland
decreased by 8%, from 183,513 to 168,896.

Due to a number of anomalies in the data for Miscellaneous
offences, this group is only comparable from 2008-09 onwards.
Further information on the comparability of Group 6 is available in
the 'Data Considerations' section below, and in
Annex 2.

The national rate of recorded Miscellaneous offences decreased
from 343 per 10,000 population in 2014-15 to 314 offences per
10,000 population in 2015-16. This varied by local authority area,
with the highest rate in Glasgow City (663 per 10,000 population)
and the lowest rate in East Renfrewshire (113 per 10,000
population) (
Table
13).

Chart 17 shows the five categories within Miscellaneous offences
over the last ten years, with Drunkenness and other disorderly
conduct and Other miscellaneous offences from 2008-09. This chart
gives an indication of the trend and scale of each category. Breach
of the peace etc. and Common assault have consistently been the
biggest contributors to Miscellaneous offences.

Chart 17: Miscellaneous offences in Scotland, 2006-07 to
2015-16

Breach of the peace etc.:

Breach of the peace etc. includes Breach of the peace,
Threatening or abusive behaviour, Offence of stalking, Offensive
behaviour at football and Threatening communications. A further
breakdown of Breach of the peace etc. into its component parts is
available in
Table A6.

Breach of the peace etc. is the largest category in
Miscellaneous offences, accounting for more than a third (37%) in
2015-16. Over the ten year period from 2006-07 to 2015-16, this
category has fallen by more than one third (35%), including a 2%
decrease from 63,205 in 2014-15 to 62,233 in 2015-16.

All but one local authority area recorded a decrease in this
category over the ten year period. Between 2014-15 and 2015-16,
more than one half (18) of local authorities showed a decrease.

Common assault:

Common assault accounted for 35% of Miscellaneous offences. Over
the ten year period from 2006-07 to 2015-16, this category has
fallen by one quarter (25%), including a 1% increase from 58,178 in
2014-15 to 58,596 in 2015-16.

All but one local authority area recorded a decrease in this
category over the ten year period. Between 2014-15 and 2015-16,
around two thirds (21) of local authorities showed an increase. For
the distinction between Common assault and Serious assault please
see
Paragraph 7.13 within Annex 1.

Scottish Government statisticians reviewed a random sample of
500 common assault crime records from 2014-15 to develop a better
understanding of the nature of this type of offence. The
analysis of this research is included toward
the end of this section.

Drunkenness and other disorderly conduct:

Drunkenness and other disorderly conduct includes offences such
as Drunk and Incapable, Disorderly on licensed premises and
Consumption of alcohol in designated places, byelaws prohibited.
For further information on the classification of crimes and
offences, please see
Chapter 8.

Drunkenness and other disorderly conduct accounted for 15% of
Miscellaneous offences. Despite some fluctuation, levels of this
offence fell 21% between 2008-09 and 2015-16. This includes a 31%
decrease from 35,524 in 2014-15 to 24,639 in 2015-16.

All but five (27) local authority areas recorded a decrease in
this category between 2008-09 and 2015-16. Between 2014-15 and
2015-16 all but five (27) local authorities showed a decrease.

It should be noted that the category Drunkenness and other
disorderly conduct is not considered comparable for years prior to
2008-09. This is due to double counting of offences of Disorderly
on licensed premises in legacy Tayside, and it has not been
possible to correct these data prior to 2008-09. Further
information on quality issues is available in the 'Data
Considerations' section below, and in
Annex 2.

Urinating etc.:

Urinating etc. accounted for 5% of Miscellaneous offences. This
category generally increased for several years from 2006-07,
peaking in 2012-13. Urinating etc. decreased by 31% from 11,216 in
2014-15 to to 7,700 in 2015-16, the third consecutive decrease in
these offences.

Around two thirds (20) of local authority areas recorded a
decrease in this category over the ten year period. Between 2014-15
and 2015-16 all but six (26) local authorities showed a
decrease.

Other miscellaneous offences

The Other miscellaneous offences category includes a wide range
of offences, including Racially aggravated harassment, Racially
aggravated conduct, False/hoax calls, Offences invoving children
and Offences involving animals/plants. For further information on
the classification of crimes and offences, please see
Chapter 8.

Other miscellaneous offences account for 9% of Miscellaneous
offences. These offences increased by 2% from 15,390 in 2014-15 to
15,728 in 2015-16, in contrast to the general downward trend seen
since 2008-09.

Over two thirds (22) of local authority areas recorded a
decrease between 2008-09 and 2015-16. Between 2014-15 and 2015-16,
around one third (12) of local authorities showed a decrease.

It should be noted that the Other miscellaneous offences
category is not considered comparable for years prior to 2008-09.
Further information on quality issues is available in the 'Data
Considerations' section below, and in
Annex 2.

DATA CONSIDERATIONS

As outlined in the overall section on police recorded offences -
an extensive data quality exercise was carried out to assess the
comparability of data extracted from the Scottish Operational and
Management Information System (
ScOMIS)
with data collected from legacy police forces and published in
previous bulletins. This analysis identified that all data for
Group 6, Miscellaneous Offences, are fully comparable from 2008-09
onwards. However, two offences are non-comparable prior to 2008-09:
Disorderly on licensed premises (within the Drunkenness and other
disorderly conduct category) and Control of Pollution (within the
Other miscellaneous offences category). Therefore, comparisons for
the Drunkenness and other disorderly conduct and Other
miscellaneous offences categories in Group 6 should also only be
made for 2008-09 onwards. The comparability of the remaining three
categories in Group 6: Common assault; Breach of the peace etc. and
Urinating etc. are not affected.

Scottish Government statisticians also reviewed a random sample
of 500 common assault crime records from 2014-15 to develop a
better understanding of the nature of this type of offence. This
research found that the quality of recording decisions for common
assault by Police Scotland is very good, with 98% of common
assaults classified correctly. The
analysis of this research is included in a
topical section below.

The previous
HMICS
Crime Audit, carried out in 2014, included a review of Hate Crime.
Of the 504 hate crimes examined, 94% were counted and classified
correctly. Five crimes were under-counted and six crimes were
over-counted. There were no recurring themes in relation to
counting errors for hate crime. However, the majority of
classification errors related to the same technical issue around
the classification of crimes between s.50(a) (1B) of the Criminal
Law Consolidation (Scotland) Act 1005 and s.38 of the Criminal
Justice and Licensing (Scotland) Act 2010.

The Test 1 compliance rate of 97% for hate crime was the best of
the four crime categories audited in 2014. Test 1 failures tended
to relate to a lack of information or update on the incident record
to dispel criminality. In several incidents, the complainer became
uncooperative but a crime should nonetheless have been recorded. In
a few incidents, a crime had clearly taken place but no trace of a
crime record could be found.

DATA COMPARISONS

Racially aggravated harassment and conduct

The Other category in Miscellaneous offences contains offences
of Racially aggravated harassment and Racially aggravated conduct,
and
Table A7 shows these offences for the last
ten years. In 2015-16 there were 75 offences of Racially aggravated
harassment and 2,057 offences of Racially aggravated conduct. While
these are specific racially aggravated offences, they do not
account for all racially aggravated crimes such as assault or
vandalism.

The Racist Incidents Recorded by the Police in Scotland
statistical bulletin series contains more detailed information on
racist incidents such as victim/complainer and perpetrator
characteristics, location of incident and the crimes recorded and
cleared up as part of racist incidents.

The latest Racist Incidents Recorded by the Police in Scotland
bulletin, containing data for 2013-14, was published in November
2015. This bulletin also outlined plans to scope out the
possibility of replacing the racist incidents publication with a
new and broader statistical product on police recorded Hate Crime.
Work will continue with Police Scotland as they consider the Hate
Crime data they hold on their existing systems, and users will be
informed as this develops.

Scottish Crime and Justice Survey (
SCJS)

In addition to information on police recorded crime, the
SCJS
provides a complementary outlook on crimes of violence through
asking respondents about their experiences.

As previously noted, violent crime as defined by the
SCJS
is not directly comparable with non-sexual crimes of violence
recorded by the Police. Common assaults, which make up the majority
of
SCJS
violent crime, are included in the Miscellaneous offences police
recorded crime group, and the Non-sexual crimes of violence crime
group includes homicide.

A more detailed examination of comparisons between the
SCJS
and recorded crime is made within
Chapter 5.

Key points from the Scottish Crime and Justice
Survey:

As stated under the Non-sexual crimes of violence section, of
the 688,000 crimes measured by the
SCJS
in 2014-15, 186,000 (27%) were violent crimes and it is estimated
that 2.6% of adults in Scotland were a victim of violent crime in
2014-15.

In 2014-15, minor assaults made up the vast majority of
SCJS
violent crime (76%), followed by attempted assault (16%), serious
assault (4%) and robbery (4%).

Further detail on the comparable crime set is available in
Section 5.3. As outlined there and in the
Annex of
the 2014-15 SCJS, violent crime in the
SCJS
includes assault and robbery, crimes which are included in
Group 1 (Non-sexual crimes of violence) and
Group 6 (Miscellaneous offences) in police recorded crime
figures.

As outlined in
Section 5.3, recorded violent crime figures
in the comparable category decreased by 24% between 2008-09 and
2014-15, while for the same period the
SCJS
estimates of violent crime decreased by 41% (a statistically
significant change in the
SCJS
results).

Group 6 - Miscellaneous Offences: An Additional Analysis of
Common Assault Offences

This topical section of the Bulletin presents some additional
analysis of police recorded common assault. In December 2015 the
Scottish Crime Recording Board commissioned research into the
nature of violence contained within police recorded common assault.
The purpose of this research was to inform the Board's ongoing
consideration of how crimes and offences are grouped together in
the presentation of these statistics.

Scottish Government statisticians reviewed a random sample of
500 common assault crime records, which represented 0.9% of the
58,178 recorded by the police in 2014-15. Statisticians assessed
whether each sampled record met the definition of a common assault
and information was captured on the characteristics of each case.
As this research is based on a sample of police records, users
should treat the following analysis as a broad indication of the
characteristics of common assault, rather than as an exact measure.
All figures are presented at Scotland level as sample sizes are too
small to provide robust estimates for geographies below this. A
summary of the research findings is provided below and in the
infographic.

Quality of Recording Decisions:

The quality of recording decisions for common assault by Police
Scotland is very good. 98% of common assaults were classified
correctly. Those records incorrectly classified as common assault
were either a breach of the peace, a serious assault or
insufficient detail was provided to dispel the notion a serious
assault had occurred.

Action of the Perpetrator(s):

In only 2% of cases were the actions of the perpetrator(s)
considered to be no worse than spitting or insufficient to classify
the case as an assault. The remaining 98% of cases split almost
equally into single strikes against the complainer (49% of all
records sampled) or at least two strikes against the complainer
(48% of all records sampled).

For those cases that included at least one strike against the
complainer, the most common action was pushing, shoving, pulling or
grabbing (46% of cases), followed by slapping or punching (43%),
kicking (19%), striking with a held object (14%), throwing an
object (8%) and biting or head butting (8%). These figures add up
to more than 100% as assault can have multiple action types.

Injuries sustained by the Complainer:

Around half of common assault cases involve no or very little
injury to the complainer (victim). These include:

Incidents with no contact between the complainer and
perpetrator(s), either because the attempted strike by the
perpetrator(s) missed the complainer or the perpetrator(s) spat
on the complainer (9% of cases),

Incidents with confirmed contact between the complainer and
perpetrator(s), but the record either reports no or very little
injury to the complainer or no mention is made of any injuries
(43% of cases).

The remaining common assault cases (again around half) involve
some degree of injury to the complainer. These include:

Injuries of soreness and/or red marks on skin only (6% of
cases),

The confirmation of single or multiple injuries to the
complainer beyond soreness and/or red marks on the skin (42% of
cases). This includes the small number of cases the research
determined should have been recorded as serious assaults.

Where the complainer had sustained at least one injury during
the assault, the most frequently referred to injuries were
scratches, lacerations and/or the drawing of blood (51% of cases),
followed by bruising and/or swelling (42%), soreness and/or red
marks (26%) and other injury types (15%). These figures add up to
more than 100% as an assault can have multiple injury types.

Almost three-quarters (72%) of those records that note some kind
of injury place at least some of those injuries around the head and
neck area of the complainer.

Characteristics of the Complainer and
Perpetrator(s):

Complainer gender split equally between male and female (49% in
each case - with the remaining 2% unknown). Perpetrators were much
more likely to be male or all male groups (74% of cases).

A majority (61%) of common assault cases occur between people
who know each other - including partners or ex-partners (29% of
cases reviewed), acquaintances (23%) and family members who are not
partners (9%). Females were more likely to be assaulted by a
partner or ex-partner than males (46% of assault with a female
complainer involved a partner or ex-partner as perpetrator,
compared to 14% of assault with a male complainer).

Around a third (34%) of common assault cases occur between
people who do not know each other - including cases where the
complainer was undertaking an occupation that may have increased
their risk of being assaulted (i.e. Police officer, security staff
etc.) (17% of cases reviewed) and cases where the complainer wasn't
undertaking an occupation with increased risk (also 17%). The
remaining 5% of all cases sampled had an unknown relationship
status.

The most likely location for a common assault was a dwelling
house or garden (46% of cases). This was followed by the street
(22%), and pubs/night clubs/ places of public establishment
(9%).

Around half (49%) of common assault records make reference to
the consumption of alcohol. This could be by the perpetrator(s),
the complainer or both. This doesn't necessarily mean that alcohol
was a factor in every one of these assault cases. At the same time
alcohol may have been consumed prior to some of the other assaults,
but not referenced in the crime record. Six per cent of records
sampled make reference to the consumption of drugs, though the same
caveats as noted above for alcohol apply.

Next Steps:

The Scottish Crime Recording Board will reflect on the findings
of this research and any impact this may have on how crimes and
offences are grouped together for statistical purposes. This will
be undertaken in tandem with the Board's consideration of
HMICS's
Crime Audit 2016 publication (which assessed the extent to which
police recording practices complied with the Scottish Crime
Recording Standard and counting rules - see a summary of the
Audit's findings above).

Going forward, the Board will also consider whether further
sampling of police records could increase the value of these
statistics (through gaining new information on the characteristics
of police recorded crimes and offences) and what resources may be
available to support this work. Users will be kept informed as this
work develops and can register for updates on crime statistics
through the Scotstat network:
http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Statistics/scotstat.